Somewhat delayed by the absence of a representative of the El Hacho entity, the case scheduled for today began in the first section of the Palacio de la Justicia in Málaga. In the dock were the former mayor of Manilva Antonia Muñoz, the current Beaches councillor Paqui López, the Town Hall’s legal adviser Aitor Menoyo and former councillors Antonio de Haro and Emilio López, in the case known as the «Manilva Case», which centres on payments made by the Town Hall itself to the El Hacho Entity, with accusations of prevarication and misappropriation of public funds.
The current mayor of Manilva, Mario Jiménez, was also one of those summoned in the case, but he was unable to attend due to health problems, which is the reason the court decided to postpone the case. It was initially moved to 16 June, but because of the schedules of the lawyers it has finally had to be postponed to 23 September at 10:00.
The events date back to 2008, when the Entidad Urbanística Colaboradora de Conservación del Complejo Residencial El Hacho (the collaborating urban maintenance body for the El Hacho Residential Complex) was set up. It is the largest housing development in the municipality, located next to Puerto de la Duquesa.
The prosecutor states in his submission that both the mayor and some members of the Town Hall’s governing board, among them the current mayor, ordered or helped to approve, with their vote, operations through which the El Hacho urban body was financed with Town Hall money.
They did so, the Public Prosecution Service considers, «with full knowledge that they were exceeding their powers and despite the opposition of the municipal treasury, the municipal comptroller’s office and the Tesorería General de la Seguridad Social (the Social Security Treasury)».
Indeed, in March 2009 Social Security informed the Town Hall that any amount the Town Hall had to pay to El Hacho should be seized.
The prosecutor understands that the municipal officials acted «knowing the unlawfulness» of these operations and «despite the repeated reports from the municipal Treasury and Comptroller’s office opposing these transfers of public money».
The Public Prosecution Service, in its provisional conclusions, highlights that Antonia Muñoz allegedly ordered the payment of up to €113,422 to the maintenance body, some of which were allegedly made at the request of the Town Hall’s then legal adviser, Aitor Menoyo, who was acting as secretary of the El Hacho maintenance body.
Menoyo, who was the former mayor’s personal adviser and still works as a legal adviser at the Town Hall, is also under investigation in the case, as he requested «with knowledge of its unlawfulness», according to the public prosecution’s submission, five transfers totalling €59,718 for El Hacho.
The Prosecutor’s Office stresses that there were also two other operations approved by the municipal governing board authorising transfers of €44,019 of public funds from Manilva Town Hall to the maintenance body. In both it places, among other councillors, the now mayor of Manilva, Mario Jiménez.
The prosecutor considers that the events would constitute offences of prevarication and misappropriation, which in the case of the former mayor, as alleged perpetrator, and her adviser, as alleged necessary collaborator, would be of a continuing nature.
For the former mayor, the prosecutor is seeking a sentence of eight years in prison, one year less for Menoyo, and absolute disqualification for 20 years for the offence of misappropriation, as well as special disqualification from public employment or office for 15 years.
Five other councillors, among them the current mayor, will also be in the dock on these charges. For all of them, the Public Prosecution Service is seeking four years in prison for misappropriation and special disqualification for 17 years.
The Prosecutor’s Office also demands that the accused and the El Hacho urban body compensate Manilva Town Hall with €217,159, which is the amount allegedly misappropriated.
In October 2017, when Diario SUR reported the prosecutor’s accusation, Mario Jiménez expressed his confidence in the justice system, but also his opposition to the prosecutor’s submission. He maintained that these were «one-off loans that have already been repaid to the municipal coffers, with the corresponding interest, and for which there are receipts». He added that the loans were approved because Puerto de la Duquesa was going through a serious situation, with families who had gone five months without being paid.
In November 2017, the current coalition partner Diego José Jimenez argued at a council meeting (which neither the current mayor Mario Jiménez nor the current cleaning councillor Paqui López, both charged in the case, attended) for Manilva Town Hall itself to join the El Hacho case as a «legal obligation» to defend municipal interests. The item did not go ahead because of votes against from Compromiso Manilva, whose spokesman at the meeting, Marcos Ruiz, argued that the sums handed over were a loan that had already been repaid; a vote against from the Izquierda Unida representative, Antonio Barragán, who considered joining the case unnecessary as no debt existed; and from the Partido Popular, whose Francisco Miguel Álvarez voted against on the grounds that from a procedural point of view «it was not the time», indicating that «the judge may consider that the Town Hall is coming to bother and annoy». The then ASM councillor, Emilio López, asked to leave the debate and the vote on that item, following the guidance of the municipal secretary.
HIS CURRENT COALITION PARTNER GAVE THE REASONS WHY HE SHOULD RESIGN
Incomprehensible as it may seem, at that council meeting in November 2017 the Socialist spokesman, Diego José Jiménez, who was in opposition at the time, did not directly call for the mayor’s resignation, but he did give him some reasons why he should decide to resign. Among them, that «with his indictment he is damaging the image of the municipality and because he is not focused on running the Town Hall but on not losing his freedom», he said.
The former mayor Antonia Muñoz, for her part, is being investigated in another judicial case over an alleged cronyism scheme, which is examining the hiring of some 900 people at the Town Hall and the municipal companies between 2007 and 2013.
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